As I returned in last Friday’s blog post to Snippets about money management, below are my ideas for talking to your pre-teens and teens. I wrote this five-part money series before we, as citizens of the United States, were feeling the serious implications of the spread of the Coronavirus. With so many hurting economically, the importance of teaching our children the value of making wise money decisions is as crucial as ever.
How can you as a parent raise financially responsible teens and young adults? Don’t they teach that in the classroom? Probably not. And even if your child does receive some basic financial instruction at school, you need to start talking about money and financial life skills with your pre-teen on a regular basis. Use the following points to help you get started. Sit down with your pre-teen or teen and write out a list together of the expenses Mom and Dad or other caregiver(s) have including mortgage payment or rent, car payment, water bill, gas and electric bill, phone bill, insurance payment, school expenses, etc. You don’t need to tell your child what you earn, but he or she needs to know it takes a lot of money to run a household.
Teach what a financial flow chart is: salary coming in, expenses going out, and having something left for savings. Talk about what a budget is: dividing take-home pay into allotted divisions and seeing where expenses can be cut back if needed.
Talk about physical checks, mobile banking, debit cards, credit cards—whatever you use and are familiar with. Warn about using credit cards when you can not afford to pay off balances each month. Create a game by calculating how much money your teen might earn at a fast-food summer job at maybe 20-35 hours a week. If your teen wants a laptop, a smart phone, or clothes, figure out how many hours of work it will take to be able to buy that one need or want.
Children don’t automatically become responsible teens and young adults when they reach 18. You, as their best teacher, need to lead the way with frequent and on-going conversations.
Snippet on Raising Financially Responsible Teens and Young Adults
By Connie Carlisle Polley, 2020
ConnieCarlislePolley.com
If you missed any of the first three of my blog posts on money management, here they are listed below in chronological order as they were posted.
You can click to go back easily to whatever you may find of interest. And be sure to come back next week for my final thoughts on money management. It’s entitled Building Bigger Barns.
How to Have All the Money You Need–https://conniecarlislepolley.com/2020/03/06/snippet-on-how-to-have-all-the-money-you-need/
Money Matters–
https://conniecarlislepolley.com/2020/03/13/snippet-on-money-matters/
Teaching Young Kids Money Basics–https://conniecarlislepolley.com/2020/04/17/snippet-on-teaching-young-kids-money-basics/
Within the next few weeks my second children’s book will be ready for publishing. Check back as I’ll keep you posted.
In the meantime if you have early readers in the family or among friends with an upcoming special day (or if you would just like to make his or her ordinary day into a special one), you may purchase Volume 1 of my NONNY DAY SERIES, Sweet Potato Pie, Oh My! It is now available on Amazon at a reduced price. Click below for more information.
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